


Vacuum

by iceplanet



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, Slight Wedge/Luke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-01
Updated: 2016-04-01
Packaged: 2018-05-30 11:15:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6421753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iceplanet/pseuds/iceplanet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A brief vignette, set during ESB. The Millennium Falcon returns to the Alliance fleet. Wedge is the sentry who guides them in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vacuum

Most of the Alliance pilots find sentry duty dull and nearly pointless -- after all, Home One's sensor array renders their data superfluous -- but Wedge looks forward to his turn to float out beyond the fleet's borders in his X-wing, half an eye on the sensor panel and the rest of him enjoying the solitude and velvet darkness of deep space.

His astromech unit, Bolt, emits a faint bleep and Wedge frowns at a new blip on his sensors -- a ship, coming out of hyperspace. _We're out in the middle of nowhere_ , he thinks, _and there's nobody we're really expecting to come by..._ He taps the ship's icon on his data readout and nothing happens: it's flying dark, not using a transponder code. An ominous sign. And it's closing fast, broadening in his field of vision.

"Lock s-foils in attack position," he mutters, flipping the switch on his console. His R2 unit whistles at him inquisitively. "It's probably nothing, Bolt," he says, "but it's always better to be prepared." He keys his comm, turning down the signal so it won't reach much farther than the approaching ship. "This is Alliance sentry post 37F2 hailing unidentified vessel. Do you copy?"

An answering crackle sounds in his earpiece as the ship veers in closer. He can see the shape of it now, a flat disc--- "Alliance sentry, this is the Millennium Falcon," says a familiar voice, tinged with a hint of urgency. "We have a medical emergency, repeat: a medical emergency. Please guide us in."

"Princess? Is that you?" Wedge has a bad feeling about this, reaching for his control panel. "Will do-- follow me." He turns the X-wing back towards the fleet and keys in the comm channel for the medical frigate. "Frigate Redemption, this is sentry post 37F2. I have a medical emergency approaching aboard the Millennium Falcon."

"Acknowledged," replies the Redemption's comm officer. "Guide them into hanger bay five delta. Please advise type and scope of emergency."

Wedge flips back to the Falcon's channel. The ship is pacing him now; he can see Chewbacca and some indistinct human figures inside the distinctive cockpit. "Falcon, what type of medical emergency are we talking about here?"

A Wookiee moan crackles back over his headset and a second later, the princess clarifies: "Luke's lost his right hand." 

A jolt of adrenaline hits Wedge, and he can see his hands trembling on the controls. _Amputations bleed so much..._ "Is he all right? I mean, other than..."

Indistinctly through the static, he can hear the princess's voice speaking to someone nearby. "... taking you .... sentry wants to know ...." Then, a welcome voice, loud and clear. "Wedge? Is that you?"

"Luke! Yes, it's me."

"I'll be all right, although the sooner we reach that frigate, the better."

"Yes. Of course," Wedge says, a lump of worry still in his throat despite the reassurance.He swings back towards the fleet, heading straight for the Redemption in the middle, swinging under the Home One and a number of other sentry X-wings. He's probably taking the route a little too fast for this amount of traffic, but there's no way he's about to make them wait a single second longer. Keying back to the frigate's frequency, he reports: "Be advised, medical emergency is a limb amputation. Victim is conscious and seems lucid."

"Thank you, sentry," replies the Redemption's officer. "We'll be ready."

Wedge lands his X-wing in the hanger bay a little bit harder than he probably should and is out of the cockpit before the canopy is fully open, landing hard on the durasteel two meters down and sprinting for the Falcon. It seems like it takes the landing ramp forever to descend. There's a team rolling a gurney and accompanied by a medical droid behind him, but he doesn't even spare them a glance.

Luke comes down the ramp, leaning heavily on Chewbacca and clutching his right arm to his belly. The arm ends abruptly in a temporary containment unit, several inches shorter than it should be; the dissonance is jarring. His face is greyish and pinched, betraying the pain he's feeling, but he still finds the energy to give Wedge a small smile. "Good to see you," he murmurs.

Wedge unroots his feet from where they've been stuck, immobile, to the hanger floor and takes Luke's intact arm, pulling it across his shoulders. "This is what happens when I'm not around to keep you in one piece," he complains, trying to make it a joke. It almost works. "What happened?"

Luke, sagging into Wedge, makes a pained noise. "I was stupid," he says, voice tinged with some deep emotion that Wedge can't identify. "I thought I could handle....aah!" He hisses through clenched teeth. "I think these painkillers are wearing off."

The medical techs reach for Luke and Wedge surrenders his grip, helps them settle Luke onto the stretcher, watches helplessly as he's wheeled off. Luke raises his good (still-attached) hand in a little wave, trying again to give him a smile before he disappears of view. Wedge stares after him, as if trying hard enough will let him see through the durasteel walls...

There's a feather-light touch on Wedge's shoulder and he turns to see the princess, her eyes tired and sad, standing before him. "Is there something I can do for you?" he asks.

"No, I'm fine," she says, shaking her head, and pauses. "Thanks... thanks for being the one to guide us in."

"Just doing my duty, ma'am," he says, taken a little aback.

" _Don't_ call me ma'am," she snaps. Then she sighs. "Sorry, it's been a long... day. Or few days. I've lost track." Wedge nods in sympathy; he's had missions like that before. "No, what I meant was... it helped him, knowing you were there."

Wedge flushes. "We've been... close for a while," he says. "I'm glad for it."

Leia nods, satisfied, and moves away, drifting back to the Falcon, where a man he doesn't recognize is helping Chewbacca adjust something on the exterior. Wedge is left standing alone, helmet in hand, as the chaos of the hanger bay closes back in around him.

In the end, he hops back into his X-wing -- after all, his sentry shift isn't over yet -- and starts up the engines. "Back out to open space for us, Bolt," he says in response to the astromech's trilled comment. Out the hanger's magcon field, over Home One, under the Luminous, and he's free of the fleet, rolling once just for the heck of it as he clears the last corvette.

The black of space welcomes him.

He lets the fighter float to a stop, engines powered down to a fraction of their ordinary operating capacity. Stars are pinpricks of light against endless expanse in every direction. Many pilots need to have a planet somewhere in sight in order to keep vertigo at bay, but Wedge likes the vacuum. It gives him perspective. 

_Nothing like a little galactic existentialism to put a close call on your best friend's life in perspective._

Wedge tilts his head back, until he's looking straight up through the top of the canopy and his helmet starts digging uncomfortably into the back of his neck, and breathes.


End file.
